Fun T-Shirts By Life Is Crap

So, what’s a person to do? Paul Wheeler believes the only answer is laughter. The whole focus of his company — predictably named Life is Crap — is to take the inevitable, put it up front and visible and laugh it off. “It’s our mission,” says Wheeler of his Manchester, Vt., company. Together with his partner, Ken Lefevre, they have successful brought the company to the marketplace.

“Everything we do revolves around the idea that crap happens and that laughter is the cure.”

That means the message shows up on T-shirts, caps —anywhere an individual can make a statement on the way things are in this troubled world. The company is now expanding into checks that give folks a frequent opportunity to reflect on the vagaries of life and apply their sense of humor. “We’ve seen what works, now we’re scaling up. We’re always looking for ways to expand.” Always within the boundaries of the basic concept, he adds. That careful attention to sticking to initial principles has turned Life is Crap into a $10 million dollar enterprise.

If you ended up with a bad split in the bowling alley, there it is—a shirt showing the ball rolling easily between the two widely separated pins. Out of wine? Lament the fact with a public display of the empty glass. The bicycle depicted crashing into the pile of dirt at the bottom of the hill? It has happened to all of us. Wheeler and crew simply take the universal hazards of everyday living and put them out there where everyone can laugh along. The company customizes such items as magnets, books, calendars, shirt, caps, towels, hoodies, key rings, shot glasses, beer steins, decals, greeting cards, page a day calendars items— any desired surface that will accommodate an image.

Looking at the irritations of life might seem like a negative approach, but those who retail his products don’t seem to mind, Wheeler has found. No one has ever complained. Of course, that means finding the best outlets for Life is Crap merchandise. Someone lacking the sense of humor to appreciate the products, obviously, isn’t the one to present them to his purchasing public, Wheeler has found. The bah-humbuggers who refuse to find humor in life are to be avoided. And there are, believe it or not, some “crap” areas that don’t translate well to the buying public.

There have been some bombs along the learning curve. The company thought that politics was a logical target for its kind of humor and found that, in fact, no serious person of any political persuasion wanted anyone publicly poking fun at their well-known areas of crap. That venture was a failed effort that cost time and money, he said.

Another spot too sensitive to subject it to humor, the company found, is the current economy. No merchant wanted his customers reminded that times are tough. The popular idea of what’s funny changes with time and events, Life is Crap has found, but there is always plenty of grist for its mill in just the ongoing, everlasting irritations that humans endure. The company expects to continue to thrive on items that make the enduring easier.

The whole road to success, Wheeler said, has been a process of trial and error. When the group started, they were up against the same basic questions each new small business faces. How to put their ideas into concrete products. How to find the best business model to meet their goals. How to allocate the existing resources most effectively. Where to find the most effective market outlets. They spent a year in development.

To date, the company has developed some 500 images, licensed them and marketed through over 1100 stores. As the small business got a toe hold in the market, the next logical step was putting the goods online, he said. “We buy back product from the manufacturer and sell it online. We’ve done well and have seen it grow. Now we are focused on getting traffic to our site.”

The basic concept for Life is Crap requires employees who are in tune, he said. The group is small—just five employees—but they comprise the gamut of artistic and business savvy that is making Life is Crap a growing concern. Being constantly alert to possibilities has contributed to the growing of the company’s product lines. Pure serendipity, in fact, had a hand in bringing designer checks into the fold. Wheeler, et al, met the owner of Carousel Checks during a trade show. There was an exchange of ideas and voila! Another licensing arrangement was born.

In 2012, the company will be focused in building and expanding our direct to consumer internet business. New products to be launched include several other related sub-brands: Life is Poop — for infants, Life is Ruff for dog lovers, Old Life is Crap for Senior Citizens, College Life is Crap for College Students and Life is Beer — for BEER LOVERS.

The fact that life is crappy is not likely to end soon. There is always the bird overhead looking for a place to unload. That bodes well for Wheeler and Life is Crap as they look for new targets for their brand of humor.

Protect Your New Business

The Five Most Commonly Used Business Organizations

There are five common types of business organizations. Outlined below you will find the definitions of each type of business and why you might want to choose that type of structure.

Sole Proprietorship

The sole proprietorship is for someone who owns a company and is not planning to incorporate or become a limited liability company. This is mainly for a business that will be owned by one individual. That individual may or may not have employees. When you have this type of business structure, you report your business income on your individual tax return. Some of the risks of the sole proprietorship are that your business debts and obligations could be attached to your personal assets, even if they are not directly related to your business.

Partnerships

The second type of structure is a partnership. Usually a partnership will consists of two or more people who want to do business together. Each partner has a fiduciary duty of loyalty and trust to the other partners and put his own interests below the interests of the partnership. Partners have unlimited liability to the business. Creditors can require that liabilities be paid from personal assets. Partnerships report profits or losses on individual income tax returns. Partners are not allowed to sue each other. Usually partnerships require a written partnership agreement.

Limited Partnerships

The third type of structure is a limited partnership. This is made up of at least one or more general partners and at least one or more limited partners. General partners act as the fiduciaries of the business and assume all the monetary risk. All parties can profit from the company. Limited partners assume risk of their contributions and that is all. Limited partners often assume the role of raising capital and do not participate in the day-to-day business operations. Members file their own individual tax returns. The partnership files an information return with the Internal Revenue Service, notifying the IRS of each partner’s share of the year’s profit or loss.

Corporations

The fourth type of business structure is a corporation. This is the type of organization that is most often used with the term business. Most large businesses are corporations. People can invest in corporations without assuming liability or management responsibilities. Corporations are creations of the state. Corporations have a board of directors and can issue stock. Shareholders are owners of the corporation and have limited liability and are not involved in the day to day operations of the business. A corporation is a legal person and a legal entity separate from its shareholders and managers. A corporation pays state and federal income taxes on its income.

Limited Liability Company

The fifth business structure is a limited liability company or LLC. LLCs are created by filing Articles of Organization with the state in which you live and have one or more “persons” conducting business. One benefit of this organization structure is that no member, manager or employee is personally liable for any debt obligations of the company. The LLC has a tax status of a general partnership with limited liability protection. No annual meetings are required. Members can participate in management more than in a limited partnership. They are responsible for disclosure, record keeping and annual reporting requirements. LLCs are only taxed once and the earnings of a partnership are treated as the earnings of its partners.

Conclusion

This information is intended to be used as a very brief overview of the main types of business structures. Consulting with a CPA or attorney can help you make the final decision about your new business. Protect yourself against unnecessary risks and get your new business off to a good start.

There are many outsourcing websites that have very good reputations, but our main focus is going to be on Odesk.com.  Odesk.com provides three things that make it unique and reliable.

Odesk provides online tests for employees to take to prove their skills. They have a total of 341 different tests that service providers can take. Each test is a forty question, online test. Only 57% of the people who take these tests pass them.

When workers take tests in their skill areas their scores are published in their profiles. You will be able to see the name of the test and the percentage of questions they got right. This type of information is a time saver and such a blessing. It helps contractors find people that really are capable of completing your job. If you find someone who ranked in the top ten percent of the skills tests that you feel they need, then chances are you’ll have a satisfying experience with them.

Odesk.com also allows work providers to give an honest evaluation of the person they are working for. So if you are a pain in the neck to work for, it won’t be long before that reputation will follow you. On the other hand if you are considerate, explain your job well and are patient with your work providers, they are able to provide that feedback for others to see. It’s important that you are a good employer so people will apply for your jobs and feel comfortable working with you.

The third thing Odesk.com does is provide hourly workers with a program that records their work. If you are paying someone by the hour, the program intermittently takes screen shots of the providers’ desktop so you can see what they are working on. This helps you to keep track of what they are doing. Working time is automatically tracked for you. Payments and billing are handled through software at Odesk.com. Your workers get paid in a timely manner and you will receive an invoice for tax purposes.

Outsourcing some of your work to people who have specific skills that you don’t, is invaluable. With the rapid pace of technology improvements, the smart business person will benefit from the thousands of workers that are seeking more work. You may even find that many of the workers are extremely grateful to you for giving them a chance to get started. One worker said, ” I want to tell you that you gave me a lot of scope to work for the first time in Odesk. Thanks again for that. I will be grateful to you ever.”

Roman Coins Found By Dave Crisp

In April of 2010, Dave Crisp was allowed to use his metal detector to search for metal on a neighbors land.  He started to hear some odd noises from his metal detector and began digging in that area.  As he dug down about a foot, he started to find small coins about the size of a dime.

“I put my hand in, pulled out a bit of clay and there was a little Radial, a little bronze Roman coin. Very, very small, about the size of my fingernail,” said Dave Crisp.  “I’ve been detecting for twenty two years and I’ve never had a hoard before this weekend.” A hoard is two or more coins that are over 300 years old at the time of their discovery.

When he continued digging he could see some sort of pot and more coins. At this point that he made a critical decision to stop digging and notify professional excavators.  He called archaeologists from the Somerset County Council to come out and take a look.  Historians will be able to learn more because these coins were excavated by archaeologists. They were able to photograph and document the process of excavating these coins.  When excavating was completed, they found approximately 350 pounds of Roman coins in a large clay pot.

Roman Coins Found In England

Generally, the landowner and the finder come to some sort of agreement as to what they will do with anything that is found before any metal detecting begins. The country’s laws need to be considered as well. England’s Treasure Act of 1996, states that anything found in the earth that is considered an artifact belongs  to both the land owner and the finder.  They must, however, offer the find for sale to the British Museum at a price determined by the Treasure Valuation Committee.  The value of this particular find has been estimated at around $5 million. The proceeds will be shared by the land owner and Dave Crisp.

Worldwide interest in the historical find has inspired the creation of a documentary. The BBC TV is creating a movie called, “Digging for Britain,” which will be released in August of 2010.

Before you go out and buy yourself a metal detector, be sure to study the laws regulating your finds. There are Federal and State laws that help protect and preserve artifacts. You don’t want to find yourself in jail because you found something and inadvertently broke the law.

 Well, he surpassed his original claim and made $25,000 in 21 days. He decided to pay it forward and gifted John Chow $10,000. 

So, how do you make money using Facebook?

To begin with, sign up for an account and learn how to use various applications of Facebook to reprint your website blog feed, find and communicate with friends, post videos, provide valuable content to your visitors and provide leadership to anyone who wants to improve their financial condition. 

History of the Development of the Facebook Website

In 2008, Forbes Magazine declared the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, 24 years-old, the youngest self-made billionaire on earth with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion U.S. dollars. Described as a young geeky computer programmer, Mark is the mogul who is guiding the extrodinary growth of Facebook.

In 2006, Yahoo offered to buy Facebook for a billion dollars, but Mark Zuckerberg declined. Microsoft then made him an offer of $240 million dollars to gain 1.6% of the company. Based on this information, some analysts came to the conclusion that Facebook is worth $15 Billion dollars. Not all analyst agree on that valuation. 

Mark Zuckerberg is not new to the field of computer programming. He wrote his first software program in the 6th grade. In high school he was approached by both Microsoft and AOL due to a hacking project he was involved in. He decided to go to Harvard University instead. 

He built the original Facebook site in two weeks, while attending Harvard. Within a short period of time, more than 2/3 of the student body at Harvard was using the program. Within four months they had launched the program to over 40 colleges. He expanded Facebook to be used in high schools and then in 2006, he opened it up to the public. 

Facebook now has more than 700 employees, has hired a lawyer, shares more than ten billion photos, has 100-million-plus users and is connecting people with each other like they have never been able to connect before. 

Facebook Helps Entrepreneurs 

It has been said that marketing in 2008 begins with conversations and what better way to have conversations with people than being an active member of the Facebook community? People around the world are using Facebook to connect with each other for social purposes and that provides the ultimate medium to network and share your personal recommendations for a huge variety of products and purposes. What kind of marketing system can you create on Facebook?

Watch the interview with Mark Zuckerberg on 60 Minutes here:

It has occurred to me lately that people today are in the business of making up words and that business has become very profitable for some. This particular word was made up by Sheri Schmelzer. Sheri has developed a line of products for croc shoes and needed a name for the adornments. 

She came up with the name Jibbitz.  She had been inspired by a movie dialogue between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, when Meg says to Tom, “I’m such a flibertigibett.” That quickly became her nickname. When she needed a name for her business she morphed that nickname into Jibbitz.

Jibbitz is not a company to snicker at. It is one that was sold in 2006 to the Crocs shoe company for $20 million dollars.

Sheri Schmelzer was just playing with her children one day and came up with a fun afternoon activity for them, that of decorating 12 pairs of crocs. They got out all kinds of crafty items to fill the holes in the look alike crocs the family owned. By the end of the day all those look alike shoes suddenly had personality. They were delighted. That was the beginning of making hundreds of objects to decorate those cute shoes. With her husband’s help, her decorations were patented and began selling on the internet.

Now there are more than 3,000 objects available to consumers to adorn the tops of crocs. From Mickey Mouse to Winnie the Pooh and Pirates of the Carribean, there are hundreds of ways to make a croc cute. What a great money making idea.